XnView Software

Many news agencies and media outlets see the workflow from taking a photo till publishing it as a time critical one.

There are many facets of this workflow but one which can be easily "fixed" is Batch Convert. Besides of having multicore processing on it, there are other things which greatly enhance the perceived speed of publishing workflow:

Modeless Batch Processing

To see it, select some files, and with the Shift key pressed go to Tools | Batch Processing... You'll see a new tab. Now setup your settings accordingly and press 'Convert'.

The very big advantage in this scenario is that one can work / select more files for publishing, cataloging, rating / color etc. while the processing is done in background.

Some important improvements here:

1. Add a menu entry. (It is NOT discoverable)
2. Add a configurable shortcut. (Ctrl+Shift+U?)
3. Add a dynamic caption to the tab. "Batch convert - (96% done)" (dynamicity is optional imho)
4. Add another menu option called 'Add to Queue...' (a central feature in many other programs - ZPS, ASP, IDI comes in mind) which will add the current selected files to the current running batch.

Of course, the last one improvement will reduce the time spent on batch processing waiting to near 0 (zero!) because the editors usually select a file and send it directly to queue and till they will select the next photo from the entire photo report the program is almost done with the convert. I know how it is, I do it all the time. And I know others which do it all the time.

As always, I'm at your disposition with clarification, implementation details etc. if someone needs.

Add another menu option called 'Add to Queue...' (a central feature in many other programs - ZPS, ASP, IDI comes in mind) which will add the current selected files to the current running batch.

It seems that the things are easier that I thought.

Currently the program works like this:

1. Select some files -let's say 500.
2. With the Shift pressed, go to Tools | Batch Convert... - In the Input tab of the Batch Convert there are 500 files.
3. Set up the parameters as desired (output path etc.) and press Convert...
4. While the Batch Convert is running in its tab (why not tab caption above?) go back to the Browser pane, select other 30 files and, again, with the Shift pressed go to Tools | Batch Convert... The program correctly puts these files in the Input tab of the Batch Convert where now are 30 files.
5. While the Batch Convert is still running in its tab go once again back to the Browser pane, select other 40 files and, again, with the Shift pressed go to Tools | Batch Convert...

Expected: In the Input tab of the Batch Convert to be, let's say, 30+40=70 files.

Actual: In the Input tab are only the last 40 files.

How to fix:

In the new menu option 'Add to Queue...' call the modeless (or should I say parallel?) Batch Convert exactly in the same way in which Tools | Batch Convert works now with 'Shift' pressed but fix the code a little:

It seems that the actual pseudo-code for the Batch Convert is:
change this to:

Another very, very interesting (and powerful) enhancement to the engine above is an option called „Add to Current Batch” which, unlike „Add to Queue” described above, will add the selected files to the current running batch, hence let's say, if we started to conversion batch with 400 files and now we added 10 files the current running batch will have 410 files in its queue. The „Add to Queue” will add the 10 files to the 'standby' queue - the current running batch of 400 file will end and the next 10 files will be ready to convert, allowing the user to change some parameters before pressing the „Convert” button.

The above „Add to Current Batch” will render, in fact, the added Batch Conversion time to 0 (zero) because the Batch Convert will run during the editing process. During the time of the selection and, of course, by pressing the corresponding shortcut/button/menu for „Add to Current Batch”, the Batch Convert engine will run and make all the conversion stuff. Because the cherry-picking/selecting the good photos for an (online) edition requires enough time from any human who does this, the conversion engine will keep up.

Any editor form (almost) any news agency will understand what I'm saying.

*bump*

Yet another bump to this.
It is a pain to NOT have the Batch Convert running while we select / choose the photos.
It is a pain to have to wait at the end for the Batch Convert to finish its job.

The code is already there. Just give us the possibility.